Or maybe the old dog can relearn some old ones
Do you press you seams open or to one side?
When I started quilting many years I go I pressed the seams open, as I had come from a clothes sewing background. Over the years of quilting I was taught to press the seams to one side. Then I progressed to pressing them in alternating directions so they butted up against each other on the next seam. Quicker and easier and you could get away with out pinning. Hooray I thought – I avoid pinning where I can.
The wisdom was that the seam was stronger this way and if you were stitching in the ditch you wouldn’t run the risk of splitting the thread.
Recently though I’ve come back to pressing them open. A friend, Chris Tait, was making a quilt of one inch squares, and had completed a small section. Our friend and piecer extraordinaire Marge Hurst wondered why she didn’t have the seams pressed opened, so the next section Chris made she tried with the seams open – we have been convinced ever since.
Yes, pressing the seams open takes a little more time, and probably more time in pinning, but to me it isn’t a race and if it helps with the accuracy, then that’s just what needs to be done.
There’s lots of interesting advice and theories on how to press your seams out there (especially on the internet), so just do what suits you the best.
I like the fact I can still learn new things. What do you do? – fill in the survey below.
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